Radio interview about Civil War nursing
Here’s a radio interview I did about my book, Battlefield Angels: The Daughters of Charity Work as Civil War Nurses”. I’ve done a few of these over the years. I always wonder if I’ll have enough to say, but then I get talking about subjects that I enjoy and it’s easy to keep going. In this case, I shared some of the stories about the Daughters of Charity, who were the only trained nurses in the country at the start of the Civil War. They were allowed to cross the border between North and South early in war because both governments trusted them and their services were needed. My part of the show starts around the 20 minute mark. http://reasonablycatholic.com/2014/09/02/battlefield-angels-civil-war-wounded-on-the-north-and-south-relied-on-the-daughters-of-charity/
Coming on PBS: Death and the Civil War
I recently had the chance to preview Death and the Civil War, which will air on PBS on September 18 at 8 a.m. The two-hour documentary is nicely produced and explores how the Civil War and its mass killing changed how our culture views death and how the military deals with the death of its servicemen. Estimates now place the number of people killed in the Civil War at around 750,000 or about 2.5 percent of the U.S. population. The number of deaths at large battles like Antietam overwhelmed the communities near where the battles were fought. I’m not quite sure how I came to be asked to review the show, but I’m guessing that it has to do with my writing about the war. The bulk of my writing has been related to my book, Battlefield Angels: The Daughters Read more…
"Battlefield Angels" Review
The Citizen’s Companion and the Camp Chase Gazette recently reviewed my book, Battlefield Angels: The Daughters of Charity Work as Civil War Nurses. The book is a non-fiction recounting of the rarely recognized work of 300 Daughters of Charity during the Civil War. These Catholic sisters provided care on battlefields like Antietam and Gettysburg, on troop transports on the James River, in POW prisons like Point Lookout in Maryland and in hospitals like Satterlee in Philadelphia. They earned the nickname of “Battlefield Angels” because their wide, white cornettes looked somewhat like angel’s wings. They could be found in just about every state involved in the war. The Citizen’s Companion noted, “The stories are told in a compelling narrative, though the story tends to jump around because it is told chronologically. … Battlefield Angels is a non-fiction history book that reads Read more…
Why the Daughters of Charity don’t wear white cornettes any longer
I had my first book signing for Battlefield Angels: The Daughters of Charity Work as Civil War Nurses yesterday and I was told something I hadn’t heard before. Maybe someone who is reading this can give me more detail. The Daughters of Charity in America wore the wide, white cornettes that they became known for 114 years from 1850 to 1964. At that time, they switched to simpler head covering somewhat similar to what they had worn when they were Sisters of Charity in the early 1800’s. I was told that the reason for the switch was that three sisters were killed in an automobile accident because the cornettes obstructed their peripheral vision and they didn’t see an oncoming car. So does anyone know anything more about this?
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